A Treasury of Life

Produced by Indian artists working for Western patrons (including East India Company officials) in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, Company paintings depict a broad range of Indian life, from natural history, through architecture and landscape, to customs and costumes observed across the land.

Now rapidly rising in reputation and value, Company painting was once seen as a late and possibly decadent phase of traditional Indian art. But if we focus on its remarkable accomplishments, we will see that this was the moment when Indian artists who had trained in courtly ateliers first moved outside the court (and the temple) to work for new patrons, whose concerns were founded on scientific inquiry and observation. What should strike us is how Indian artists responded to their demands, creating entirely new templates of Indian art. That is what we invite you to find in the works included in this exhibition.